The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to wireless communications, and more particularly to a wireless communications method for monitoring paging messages with reduced power consumption, and an apparatus utilizing the same.
The term “wireless” normally refers to an electrical or electronic operation that is accomplished without the use of a “hard wired” connection. “Wireless communications”, is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or wires. The distances involved may be short (e.g., a few meters for television remote controls) or very long (e.g., thousands or even millions of kilometers for radio communications). The best known example of wireless communications is the cellular telephone. Cellular telephones use radio waves to enable an operator to make phone calls to another party from locations worldwide. They can be used anywhere, as long as there is a cellular telephone site to house equipment that can transmit and receive signals, which are processed to transfer both voice and data to and from the cellular telephones.
There are various well-developed and well-defined cellular communications technologies. The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is a well-defined and commonly adopted communications system, which uses time division multiple access (TDMA) technology. Hence, the GSM communications system employs a multiplex access scheme for digital radio, to send voice, data, and signaling data (such as a dialed telephone number) between mobile phones and cell sites. The CDMA2000 is a hybrid mobile communications 2.5G/3G (generation) technology standard, which uses code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. The UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is a 3G mobile communications system, which provides an enhanced range of multimedia services over the 2G GSM system. Other emerging radio access technology (RAT), such as Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and long term evolution (LTE), are still being developed.
For various cellular communications technologies, listening to paging channels and paging indicator channels or obtaining paging messages in an idle mode consumes a certain amount of battery power and may hinder data transceiving in a Packet-switched (PS) domain. Therefore, a method for smartly monitoring paging messages in an MS (mobile station)/UE (user equipment) is desired.